Good Morning, Friend: A Day at School

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Now that Solly is settled in at school, we’ve been working on moving his therapy appointments to during school hours so his therapists can work with him in his classroom. This helps his teachers learn about some of the things he’s working on, but also teaches his peers more about Solly, like how to best communicate with him. While parents have the option to come back to the school to sit in on therapy appointments, we recently discovered that Solly can focus better during therapy if we aren’t present, so we’re starting to limit the appointments that we attend.

Today was the first day where his speech and feeding appointments fell during the school hours and where I chose not to attend. This afternoon, I got this email from Solly’s speech therapist: Continue reading →

Roanoke, Week 4: Peace Out, Cast!

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Snuggling on our last night in Roanoke

We packed up our little home in Roanoke late Friday evening, piled into the car on Saturday, and made the trek back to Nashville. We’re home. It’s taken me two full days to decompress from the last leg of our trip – the should-be 6 hour but really 8 hour drive – and get my bearings now that we’re back in Tennessee. If it ever looks or sounds like it’s easy for us to make these trips, then I do a good job of masking it. It’s not. We’re exhausted and insanely excited to be back home in our own space. It’s always hard to get out of our normal routine: setting up our lives in a temporary home is always a struggle, as is the long car drive (and in many cases, plane ride) to and from these locations.

But, fatigue aside, this 4 week intensive therapy was 100% worth it. And the last week was particularly eye-opening. Continue reading →

Roanoke, Week 3: Finding Balance

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Hello from Roanoke!

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Yep, we’re still here. Three weeks down, one more to go.

This past week had us feeling a bit more like locals. We now no longer need to use GPS to get us to the local ADA accessible playground, we have a favorite breakfast spot, Bea and I have explored the Roanoke River Greenway several times, and Ziggy is now a regular at a puppy play center. We’re finally getting into the swing of things just as we’re starting to pack our bags to leave. Continue reading →

Roanoke, Week 2: I Did It!

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img_2162During one of Solly’s therapy sessions this week, his therapists got really excited when he used his right hand to move a bead across a track, so they cheered, “Solly, you did it!”

And Solly replied, “I did it!”

Now, I haven’t heard him say this exact phrase yet, but I completely believe that he said it. I’ve long thought that Solly understands everything we say to him and part of his sensory issues (i.e., excessive biting, throwing his head back, flailing his arms) is simply him expressing frustration that he can’t find the words to respond to us. It’s like the words are in his head, but he struggles with which word to choose and how to get it out. Continue reading →

Special Needs Sibs are Special

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When your first child has special needs, you question having a second child.

You worry if they too will have a medical diagnosis.

If typical, you worry about their relationship with your first child. Will they be resentful? Will they know how to play together? What kind of relationship will they have? Will they bond?

You worry about your own relationship with them – will I have enough time to devote to them, considering my child with special needs requires so much of my time?

We had ALL of these worries when we were planning for Solly’s little sister, Bea. Once she arrived, though, those worries started to dissipate. Bea is 100% typical. She’s a chunky, milk lovin’, Sesame Street obsessed 21 month old. And she loves her brother to pieces.

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Sweet Bea

Continue reading →